RADIATION HARDNESS OF PN-CCDS FOR X-RAY ASTRONOMY

Results of an extensive radiation hardness test of a full depletion pn -Charge Coupled Device (pn-CCD) detector are presented. The pn-CCD is a new type of Charge Coupled Device designed for X-ray spectroscopy in ESA's cornerstone X-ray Multi Mirror (XMM) satellite mission. The dev ices were irradiated with 10MeV-protons with fluences up to 6.5 . 10(9 )cm(-2). This is more than one order of magnitude higher than the equi valent proton radiation environment expected for the 10 year mission. The only effect to the device was a degradation of charge transfer eff iciency (CTE) at temperatures around 120K. At XMM's operating temperat ure between 140K and 170K the performance of the detector will not sig nificantly change during the 10 year mission. The degradation of the C TE was studied, and a method to improve it is described.